Burrow fossils are the remains of

burrow An Eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of s ...

s - holes or tunnels excavated into the ground or seafloor - by

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion preserved in the rock record. Because burrow fossils represent the preserved byproducts of behavior rather than physical remains, they are considered a kind of

trace fossil A trace fossil, also known as an ichnofossil (; from el, ἴχνος ''ikhnos'' "trace, track"), is a fossil record of biological activity but not the preserved remains of the plant or animal itself. Trace fossils contrast with body fossils, ...

. One common kind of burrow fossil is known as Skolithos, and the similar Trypanites, Ophiomorpha and Diplocraterion.

Vertebrate burrows

Fish burrows

Fossil Lungfish burrows are preserved in the Rocky Point Member of the

Chinle Formation The Chinle Formation is an Upper Triassic continental geological formation of fluvial, lacustrine, and palustrine to eolian deposits spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, western New Mexico, and western Colorado. In ...

Canyonlands National Park Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their ...

Invertebrate burrows

Examples are Treptichnus pedum and

Arenicolites franconicus ''Arenicolites'' is a U-shaped ichnotaxon (trace fossil) dating from Ediacaran times onwards in South Australia. The trace shown by this fossil, is a pair of closely spaced circles on a bedding plane In geology, a bed is a layer of sediment ...

Footnotes

References

* Hunt, ReBecca K., Vincent L. Santucci and Jason Kenworthy. 2006. "A preliminary inventory of fossil fish from National Park Service units." in S.G. Lucas, J.A. Spielmann, P.M. Hester, J.P. Kenworthy, and V.L. Santucci (ed.s), Fossils from Federal Lands. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 34, pp. 63–69. {{Subterranea Burrow fossils